All that is left are moments

Moments that define us

What follows is a short story from Rosemary’s past. After talking with her, I have taken our discussion and turned it into a series of small stories highlighting the incredible life that she has led. Direct quotes from our discussion are highlighted in quotation marks. All else is a retelling written by yours truly.

Rosemary and Bill lived in the UK for around fourteen years. A great deal can happen in fourteen years and looking back, the times can seem to blur together. All that is left are moments. Temporally ambiguous moments.

It is the purpose of this blog to highlight the adventures of Rosemary and as a result many of these moments will be left behind in the shuffle. Many are impactful but don’t necessarily pertain to the sense of adventure I seek to capture.

However, before moving on to Rosemary and Bill’s adventures in America it is important to touch upon two of these moments that helped shape the lives of Rosemary and Bill in the years leading up to their departure from England. One is a moment of immense joy, the other of immense sorrow.

The moment of joy

By the time Rosemary and Bill left for America, their three eldest had moved out and begun their new lives as fully-fledged adults. The family was shrinking and the house was growing bigger as more and more children left the nest.

That was, until a new daughter came along. A bright, energetic girl who changed the tide and grew Rosemary’s family by one. She came into Rosemary and Bill’s family from a slightly different angle than you might expect: the younger sister of the wife of Rosemary and Bill’s second son.

When Rosemary and Bill moved to the USA she went with them and now lives there with her own wonderful family.

The moment of sorrow

In the middle of December, seven months before the family was to fly to the USA, one of their sons was taken from this earth, killed tragically in a car crash. He had woken up that morning having had the most beautiful of dreams, of a place so happy and perfect that he had to tell the family.

Unfortunately, Bill had just returned from a trip to the USA and didn’t have time to hear his son’s dream before that tragic incident. It was one of his biggest regrets that he didn’t take the time to listen, too exhausted he was from the jetlag.

That night a policeman knocked on the door and Bill went to confirm the identity of his son.

It was a horrific moment in Rosemary and Bill’s life, one that helped shape the rest of their lives. But the dream has lived in Rosemary as a memory of hope. She sees it as a sign. It was God welcoming her son home.

Many years later one of Rosemary’s grandsons was born on that tragic December day. Although now that day is not so tragic. The cycle of joy and sorrow, of life and all its complexity, continues.

The many moments of life

These are two moments that cannot be ignored in the life of Rosemary. They may not have included travels to far away places or crazy encounters with interesting people; but they shaped the life of Rosemary in a way that few events could.

And as this is a story about the incredible life of Rosemary, it felt only appropriate to include them.

Stay tuned for more stories from the life of Rosemary. Please note: these stories will not necessarily hold any chronological grounding. They are designed as snippets of understanding into the life of Rosemary and while some will hold chronology, others may not.